Leasho Johnson

Biography
Leasho Johnson, The man disguised as night (Anansi #29), 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim.
Leasho Johnson, The man disguised as night (Anansi #29), 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Mariane Ibrahim.
Leasho Johnson (b. 1984 in Montego Bay, Jamaica; lives and works in Chicago, IL) creates art that explores the intersections of Black queer identity, Caribbean folklore, and post-colonial narratives. His practice combines hand-crafted pigments, charcoal, and stenciling to produce dynamic compositions that blur abstraction and figuration. Depicting figures in varying stages of drastic transformation, Johnson challenges traditional portraiture, using abstraction as a means of protection for the figures. Johnson draws from Jamaican cultural heritage and mythology, especially the character of Anansi, a shapeshifting trickster both human and animal. Johnson navigates complexities of identity, self-expression, and historical memory through material layering and concealment. His work is known for its sensual intensity and its ability to sit between lush harmony and claustrophobia, offering a space to exist beyond predefined understandings of reality. 

 

Johnson earned his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and has participated in prestigious residencies, including the Ruby Cruel Residency in London (2023) and the Fountainhead Residency in Miami (2022). His work has been exhibited internationally and is held in notable collections such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Chicago, IL), Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Canada), the National Gallery of Jamaica (Kingston, Jamaica), and the Pérez Art Museum Miami (Miami, FL). Leasho Johnson was a recipient of the 2025 3Arts Award. 

 

The artist’s work was most recently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago as part of Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaetón. The exhibition will be travelling to the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) in 2027. 

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A Perfect camouflage to the thunder bulging behind it, 2026
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